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In the Mouth of Madness
A scary thing happened on the way to the Movie Forums - Horrorcrammers
In the Mouth of Madness
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I liked In the Mouth of Madness a lot when I saw it, but haven't felt the urge to revisit it, which isn't the case for my favourite Carpenters.
A top 5, because why not:
Halloween
The Thing
Assault on Precinct 13
They Live
Escape from New York
A top 5, because why not:
Halloween
The Thing
Assault on Precinct 13
They Live
Escape from New York
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Also, Event Horizon is one of those movies that should be good given its cast, but unfortunately it's directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who manages to suck the tension out of every frame and end the movie in the lamest possible fashion.
One of those directors whose cult I do not understand. Or, I guess I do, but I think they're mistaking his technical proficiency for actual artistry.
One of those directors whose cult I do not understand. Or, I guess I do, but I think they're mistaking his technical proficiency for actual artistry.
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the end result was something that I was glad I watched, but wouldn't be tempted to revisit.
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Also, Event Horizon is one of those movies that should be good given its cast, but unfortunately it's directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who manages to suck the tension out of every frame and end the movie in the lamest possible fashion.
One of those directors whose cult I do not understand. Or, I guess I do, but I think they're mistaking his technical proficiency for actual artistry.
One of those directors whose cult I do not understand. Or, I guess I do, but I think they're mistaking his technical proficiency for actual artistry.
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Top 5 Carpenter
1) Halloween
2) The Thing
3) Christine
4) The Fog
5) Assault on Precinct 13
1) Halloween
2) The Thing
3) Christine
4) The Fog
5) Assault on Precinct 13
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I just watched Event Horizon for the first time. I mildly enjoyed it. But there is absolutely nothing about it that makes me want to grant the director any credit for my minor approval. It's watchable in spite of itself.
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He's not even particularly technically proficient.
The problem is that as coherent as he can make the action, he doesn't know how to make it exciting or even remotely tense. The Resident Evil movies are full of action sequences that are just a bunch of either repetitive back and forths between Milla and her opponent that resolve themselves in the lamest way possible, or scenes where Milla completely overpowers her opponents, also in the lamest way possible. I don't even hate the movies (they hover around the 5-6 out of 10 range for me), but they're nowhere near as fun as they should be.
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I mean, she shoots clear and easy to follow action. In the shakycam era, I can see why his work might have been appealing.
The problem is that as coherent as he can make the action, he doesn't know how to make it exciting or even remotely tense. The Resident Evil movies are full of action sequences that are just a bunch of either repetitive back and forths between Milla and her opponent that resolve themselves in the lamest way possible, or scenes where Milla completely overpowers her opponents, also in the lamest way possible. I don't even hate the movies (they hover around the 5-6 out of 10 range for me), but they're nowhere near as fun as they should be.
The problem is that as coherent as he can make the action, he doesn't know how to make it exciting or even remotely tense. The Resident Evil movies are full of action sequences that are just a bunch of either repetitive back and forths between Milla and her opponent that resolve themselves in the lamest way possible, or scenes where Milla completely overpowers her opponents, also in the lamest way possible. I don't even hate the movies (they hover around the 5-6 out of 10 range for me), but they're nowhere near as fun as they should be.
But even among hack Hollywood contemporaries, there just seems to be a sloppily cobbled together feel to much of his work.
I mean, it would take an essay to break down how incompetent one has to be to make this action scene when aiming for something Matrix-esque and not parody:
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It depends on the relative meaning of "technically competent." Does he have a firmer understanding of filmmaking fundamentals than Neil Breen? Sure.
But even among hack Hollywood contemporaries, there just seems to be a sloppily cobbled together feel to much of his work.
I mean, it would take an essay to break down how incompetent one has to be to make this action scene when aiming for something Matrix-esque and not parody:
But even among hack Hollywood contemporaries, there just seems to be a sloppily cobbled together feel to much of his work.
I mean, it would take an essay to break down how incompetent one has to be to make this action scene when aiming for something Matrix-esque and not parody:
I laughed at the part with the coins, though. Good job, movie.
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I caught a repertory screening of In The Mouth of Madness a month or two ago, it was my first time seeing it and when watching it with a crowd, it was a total blast.
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On paper this is my favorite movie, but I've never been able to make a love connection with it. I've tried 4 or 5 times now, convinced that this time I'm going to get it. It checks a bunch of my boxes, and lots of people with tastes similar to mine love it but I'll be danged if I can get myself to join the club. And yet I still feel like I need to give it one more chance for some reason.
I caught a repertory screening of In The Mouth of Madness a month or two ago, it was my first time seeing it and when watching it with a crowd, it was a total blast.
I did see EH once, but it was nearly twenty years ago, when I was too young to really know if I felt it was good, bad, or somewhere in-between
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I saw a good chunk of In the Mouth of Madness on cable or something back in the mid-90's. I was in my teenage, snooty phase, so I didn't think it was very good at the time. I revisited it again some time in the past 10 years and then rewatched it again about two years ago. I think I'm in the camp of, "last great Carpenter?" Which I'm a little surprised I'm not seeing more of here.
Admittedly there's a lot of post-Mouths I still haven't seen.
I've had Event Horizon on the shelf for nearly ten years now, intending it as a blind watch with friends for October/Halloween. I think this is the year it's going to finally happen.
Admittedly there's a lot of post-Mouths I still haven't seen.
I've had Event Horizon on the shelf for nearly ten years now, intending it as a blind watch with friends for October/Halloween. I think this is the year it's going to finally happen.
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I also thought that the character development in Event Horizon was handled pretty poorly. I usually don't need character development in horror/slashers, but given that the film tries to get into the psychology of the characters, it invites me to ask for this. Unfortunately though, the pacing is so fast that the film doesn't have enough time to properly do this and multiple scenes just leave me asking "Where did this come from?" to myself. A missed opportunity, in my eyes.
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5 solid minutes of everything I hate in film. Man, that's impressively bad
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In the Mouth of Madness, 1994
John Trent (Sam Neill) is an insurance investigator who is hired by a publishing company to track down its missing literary star, a man named Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow) who writes horror novels that have a strange effect on some of his readers. Accompanied by an employee of the publishing house, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), the search leads to a strange town where the people are very much not alright.
There were things I absolutely loved about this movie and things that I thought were kind of annoying, and the end result was something that I was glad I watched, but wouldn't be tempted to revisit.
The positives include some really fun special effects and just in general some really disturbing staging of sequences, such as when we realize where the kindly inn owner's husband is, or what happens when the local children finally catch up to that dog they've been following. I liked Neill's performance, and I also liked Carmen in her slightly more limited role. (She took off her glasses and closed them with her mouth like three times. C'mon.)
I also liked just how openly off the town was, and the way that we see how Trent and Linda get trapped.
On the downside, Sutter Cane never really made that much of an impression on me. I appreciate the reasons behind leaving his writing mostly off-screen, but it feels like the movie is avoiding it which gives it the sense of a dodge. And while I can sort of vaguely appreciate where the film went on a meta level, the more it moved in that direction the more I felt distanced from it.
Things learned in the early chapters of reading Age of Cage, the other screen name Nicolas Coppola considered was "Miles Lovecraft."
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I....
Maybe because it's just the video game aesthetic, but that clip is making me think of a less inept Uwe Boll (also based on 5 minute clips of Alone in the Dark that circulated RT back in the mid-00s).
Maybe because it's just the video game aesthetic, but that clip is making me think of a less inept Uwe Boll (also based on 5 minute clips of Alone in the Dark that circulated RT back in the mid-00s).
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"A less inept Uwe Boll" doesn't qualify as a compliment, not even a back-handed one.
If there was any charm in a Uwe Boll film (there isn't) it would be his ineptness. And so I think it is a fair assesment of Anderson's style here that we are comparing it to Boll while removing the only hypothetical that might make his movies worth suffering through.
If that clip is at all representative of that movie, I couldn't run away from it fast enough. That is antichrist level shit there, and I thank god there isn't going to be any need to argue with anyone here that nonsense is acceptable (right?right?)
As for Event Horizon, as has already been stated, the action is entirely sucked dry of tension or suspense. It also has egregiously bad CGI effects that aren't just poorly rendered, but are frequently completely unnecessary. But there is enough mood, and a handful of compelling moments, and decent enough acting, and it moves along at a fast enough clip, that I didn't find it nearly as miserable as id anticipated.
Even though I'd rank it higher than something like Malignant though, this is kind of a cheat. I think they are both equal in their hackdom, but something like Malignant, while being stupendously bad, at least is memorable in its irritants. Event Horizon, while maybe conceptually daring, plays it very safe and while it isn't as annoying as a Wan joint, it also doesn't really take any chances. Good for passive viewing and not much else.
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